CHENNAI: The Madras High Court refused to dispense with Home Secretary Dheeraj Kumar's appearance and directed him to appear at 4:30 pm today. Otherwise, he will face an arrest warrant, the court warned.

Justice P Velmurugan observed that the court is for the service of poor litigants, not for the authorities who are only concerned about the people sitting in ivory towers. He made the remark while hearing a petition seeking to direct the police to file the final report in a criminal case lodged in 2015.

On January 29, the judge had ordered Home Secretary Dheeraj Kumar to appear in court in connection with instances of FIRs and final police reports not being filed within the stipulated time.

Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran, on behalf of the State, sought to dispense with the appearance of the Home Secretary.

He submitted that the registry is not accepting the dispense application without the court's permission and sought the judge to dispense with the Home Secretary's appearance.

The AAG also submitted that the State had moved an appeal before the Supreme Court against the order of the HC, but since the appeal is not listed, he sought relief.

However, the judge refused the request and wondered why the Home Secretary could not appear before the court. He then directed the Home Secretary to appear before the court within 4:30 pm, warning that an arrest warrant would be issued against him otherwise.

The AAG objected to the direction and submitted that the court has both hands of the State to which the judge said, "If the State felt like that, it can implead this court and registry in the appeal before the Supreme Court."